The Secrets of Caduceus

Speechless, I sit there with my jaw hanging open in awe. Could this be real? Is this just another illusion?

"Hah… Sorry, I realize this is really sudden." She apologizes.

"Y-You… You!" I shout, stomping towards her.

She backs away slowly, and soon presses her back against the wall, standing only on her two back legs. I thrust my two hooves into the wall on the right and left of her head.

"You took our only transportation, and all of our supplies! Then you left me out in the desert to die!" I shout, my voice echoing through the sewers.

"I… I said I'm…" She quietly starts.

"Sorry?! No thanks! I don't need your apology!"

I push off the wall, and turn around to face the sewage stream I was caught in. A silence looms over the air, the dripping of water occasionally breaking it. Damp, wet, and cold, I sit down and lean my back against an iron pipe that connects the ceiling and the floor. Misaki sits down in the corner she had retreated to, and remains silent.

I couldn't tell how long the silence had lasted, but I decided to break it, to try and assess the problem. I had remembered why I came to Caduceus in the first place, it was to find her. And now I'm scolding her after all my hard work? I suppose I earned it, but the opposite could easily be said as well.

"Two days." I whisper.

Out of the corner of my eye, I see her ears perk up near the lit lantern.

"It took me that long to get here. And I couldn't stop thinking about you, not for a second. I don't know why. You almost never talked, and you took off with everything we had. And yet, I still came to find you."

She turns away, her head perched on top of her folded forelegs. She spreads out her body, stretching straight on the wet floor.

"Shrubbery made a mess of a nearby town, Asclepius. Let's go back there."

She twists her head to face me.

"If we head to where I came from, we'll reach a train that can take us there." I explain, as she seems quite interested in the thought of leaving this place.

That reminded me, "Say, why are you down here anyways?"

Suddenly, I begin to hear her sob, I get up and start to walk towards her, "Hey. Hey, what's wrong--"

*CLICK*

"Don't move." A deep voice suddenly drifts from the shadows.

It didn't take me long to realize what had happened, Misaki has just led me into a trap.

"You…"

The filly continues to cry, "I said I'm sorry…" Her head still buried under her arms.

"You are one slippery little colt you know that?" The deep voice calls out.

"Who are you? And what do you want from me?" I ask.

The voice coughs twice before speaking, as if he suffers from old age, "What do you think? I suppose you wouldn't know, would you?" The sound of hoofsteps bounce off the sewer walls around us, and a revolver emerges from the darkness.

The firearm hovers in air, which leads me to believe that a unicorn is wielding it.

The voice continues, "Madam Martha. That's a name you should know quite well. She's one of two ponies in charge here, and she doesn't approve of your methods of transportation. Destroying the city we've worked so hard to build up, you little scamp."

"I don't know what you're talking about." I decide to play dumb.

Then, at that moment, I notice two things. The first being that the unicorn's revolver's hammer is already drawn back, and the second is the noise of the sewage current. Moments ago I was struggling against the powerful waves of the sewer, and now it's been reduced to a quiet trickling stream.

"Nice try." The voice resumes speaking, "But we have lookouts, snipers, and spies in every corner of this city. We've seen your face. And what luck we had, when we found little Misaki here."

"What do you mean?" I ask, standing motionless and facing forward with a stern look upon my face.

"One of our sources spotted her in the streets, below one of the buildings you had leapt from. She was shouting, 'Shrubbery! Shrubbery!' throughout the streets. The source decided it was suspicious, and restrained her. Afterwards, she explained that the timberwolf you were riding was hers. So, being the nice ponies we are, we decided to track it down for her." The voice explains.

"That doesn't explain how you found me."

"On the contrary kid, that's exactly how we found you." The voice begins to sound more confident, "You remember how your little pet got taken down right? Well, we also chased down your friends too."

Without thinking, I accidentally let out a quiet gasp.

"Don't worry." The voice assures, "They got away, for now. But, we saw you get hammered by that manhole cover, must've hurt yeah? Well we positioned units down every sewage system post we knew you would float through, and sure enough, here you are!"

"Tsk."

"Don't give me that. All you had to do was back out of little Asclepius' plan, and you could be safe here in Caduceus. Hell, you could even be in a high-class suite right now if you played your cards right." The voice chuckles.

"Listen. If you're asking for money, I don't have any to fix your buildings."

The voice doesn't reply for a moment, the only sound I can hear is the sewage stream along with the whimpering of Misaki. Then suddenly...

*CLICK*

Thinking something was about to hit me, I shut my eyes quickly as a flinching reflex.

"Aw. Too bad. No bullet."

The trigger on his revolver had been pulled, and the hammer was thrown forward. Whoever I was dealing with was either a klutz or a dramatic. Whatever the case, this was my chance to get out of this mess. Swiftly, with one motion, I slap the revolver out of the air with my left forehoof and draw my revolver, which was still hidden on my right side, the side my assailant couldn't see!

With no time to let the robotic arm take aim for me, I grab the revolver with my own hoof and take aim at the darkness where the voice was coming from. Then, I bite down on the Bullet Biter that stuck out from the revolver.

*BANG*

The bullet flies into the shadows, while the gunfire illuminates the area for a mere second. But in that mere second, I saw nothing where the voice should have been.

"W-What the--" I'm soon cut off by a voice coming from where I had just shot!

"Czzk-- Did you really think it would be that simple?"

Confused, I quickly grab the lantern from Misaki, who was now standing on all fours. Swinging the lantern towards my target, it reveals nothing. There lies an open area with nothing but a strange and small device on the ground. Then I realize, that small device… It's a radio.

"Surprise."

Suddenly, the sound metal grinding against cement echoes through the sewers. A ray of light slowly reveals itself around me, as I look directly up. The blinding light adjusts, and I see buildings towering above me. Then I realize, I'm at the bottom of a manhole.

Before I can act, a large circular object begins to fall towards me. A millisecond later, everything around me begins to fade; Misaki, the lantern, and my gun. Looking up, I can see the figure of a pony hopping down into the sewers. He leans in close, but I'm unable to see his shadow covered face. The ringing in my ears, caused by the manhole cover, prevents me from hearing anything he's saying.

Soon, everything fades to black.

Again.